MUMBAI: Under ideal circumstances the Congress should have been enthused when Arvind Kejriwal of the Aam Aadmi Party announced that communalism and not corruption is the biggest danger to the country. For it means that the AAP is leaving the Congress alone, which it calls corrupt, and is going to go after the BJP which it brands as 'communal'. The Congress is really alarmed with the AAP's stance as it feels that if the latter emerges as a 'secular' alternative to the Congress it would eat in to the party's traditional vote bank — the Muslim voter.

The party is putting out all the stops to ensure this doesn't happen in Maharashtra. A few days back some prominent Muslim organisations wanted to extend an invitation to Kejriwal to welcome him to Mumbai.

As soon as Congress leaders learnt of it they quickly contacted these leaders and exerted pressure on them and the plan was dropped. The Congress thwarted the attempt of the Muslim leaders as that could end up spoiling its campaign.

The Congress is counting on the Muslim votes to ride a strong anti incumbency wave. Anumber of Muslim organisation would be meeting next week to arrive at a 'consensus' to decide which way the community should vote for.

Maharashtra has around 12% of Muslim population out of a total of 11.23 crore. Most of the Muslim population is concentrated in urban areas. In Mumbai alone the population of Muslims stands at 20% out of the 1.30 crore people.

Maulana Saeed Noori of the Raza Academy is involved in bringing all the Ulemas, organisations and representatives of NGOs together next week. "Since the Jansangh days, we have been taken advantage of in the name of communalism, our votes have always been taken by making us afraid of the communal elements.

We haven't got anything in return. All this time our votes have been taken in the name of our safety," he said.

Khalil Zahid, Editor of Urdu daily Avadhnama, said while the AAP had emerged as an alternative it would be difficult for the community to arrive at a consensus to vote for one single party. "The community is divided between the Sunnis and Shias and Barelvis and the Deobandis, so arriving at a consensus is itself very difficult. The votes are going to be divided between the Congress and the AAP," said Zahid.

While AAP has surprised everyone it still has shown that it is an alternative to Congress, Farid Khan who runs a social organisation, Milli Shura, said. "The community will only vote for a party that it is confident would take over the BJP. Muslims would want to vote for a party that is stronger nationally and since the AAP doesn't have a national presence it would be difficult for people to vote for it," said Khan.